Here’s our last post from our recent San Diego visit – we’re talking about Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza and The Mission in San Diego. First we visited Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza – a local chain that has a location in the Gaslamp district of San Diego. Gaslamp is an uber touristy part of San Diego. Touristy to me means that it’s full of crappy chain restaurants that I don’t want to eat at, but there are a few good places to eat down there that are gluten-free. We were stuffed from SeaWorld, so we didn’t need anything huge – so we just walked here for some tasty gluten-free salads. Their menu was pretty great – and just indicated GF on the regular menu. They have a warning for celiacs pictured below on the menu.
Although the GF pizzas sounded interesting, we played it safe with salads. The server seemed pretty well-educated about their GF options. Non-GFBF tried the Red Quinoa Salad with beets and I had the Grilled Shrimp Salad. Mine had way too much dressing and it wasn’t overly great, but his salad was pretty good (although he should have had a protein on it). Overall, it’s a good option to eat downtown. You can find them on Find Me Gluten Free here.
Before we left, we met up with some awesome local friends at The Mission. This place was rated really high on Find Me Gluten Free (find their listing here) and also on some local GF websites for San Diego. They have an entire gluten-free menu featuring lots of options for breakfast and lunch.
I had a turkey sandwich and he had the Mission Club. We were the only ones that ordered lunch – but we just couldn’t pass up having gluten-free rosemary bread! Looking back, I wish that we could have had breakfast – the sandwich bread was too thick to eat as a sandwich and wasn’t that great (it fell apart too easily and was overly dry). The waiter was too rushed to talk about gluten-free or acknowledge our food issues. Although it was packed at the restaurant and we waited a while to get a table – the guy could have at least assured me that he understands gluten-free and would make me feel comfortable about ordering. I also noticed that the bread was grilled/toasted and I’m now questioning where they toast or grill it??? So, I’m happy with the amount of gluten-free items they have, I’d definitely investigate more the next time I went in and I suggest you do the same.
We love Sammy’s! Do you know they used to have one here in Phoenix? Yup. It closed down sadly. Wish they’d open somewhere around here again. We go to Carlsbad for vacation and have eaten at that Sammy’s location even before my GF lifestyle change. For us it is now a Must Go! The staff there is awesome and they are good about cross contamination and safe practices (from what we’ve observed/discussed). In fact, you made me want to go back right away!